Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani

Perhaps a good point for you to keep in mind while reading the following would be the fact that Iran is a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The ICCPR is a multilateral treaty adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 16, 1966, and in force from March 23, 1976. Signing this treaty is supposed to mean that the country doing so is pledging itself to respect the civil and political rights of individuals, including the right to life, and the rights to due process and a fair trial. The plight of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani clearly illustrates the fact that Iran's signing of this treaty is little more than a very poor joke.
Very little clear detail is being made available to the global community about the case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani. It is known that Sakineh was convicted of “illicit sex” and sentenced to 99 lashes in 2006. That sentence was carried out, in front of her two sons. Subsequently, she was charged with “adultery while being married” and it is for this charge that the sentence of being stoned to death was passed, although it seems that the woman was given no access to a lawyer to defend her against such an outcome. When the horrendous sentence was handed down, her sons sought to bring their mother's terrifying position to the attention of the world, and they have succeeded, with a storm of international protest resulting.
Among other protests against the sentence, Heather Reisman, the chief executive of Indigo Books and Music, has initiated an international petition to decry the planned execution. (Follow the link to get involved.) As of Monday morning, the petition had already seem more than 60,000 who are concerned with human rights affixing their signatures. Those members of Iran's judiciary who are connected to the case have announced, however, that “Western media propaganda” will not prevent the carrying out of the execution. Such petitions and the notion of human rights mean nothing to these savages.
A statement was made on Monday by Malek Ajdar Sharifi, chief of the judiciary of East Azerbaijan, where the sentence was passed, to say that the "heinousness of the defendant’s crimes defied belief". What really defies belief is the fact that the head of Iran’s High Council for Human Rights, (oxymoron, anyone?) said this past weekend that Ms. Ashtiani had been “convicted of adultery". That supposedly is the heinous crime that means the barbaric, medieval judiciary of Iran feel justified in totally ignoring the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and sentencing her to death. These unbelievably backward hate-mongers go to great lengths to ensure they get maximum entertainment value from such an execution. They even manage to imbue it with a misogynistic twist, which I am sure broadens the evil smiles on their faces as they watch their version of justice being done.
The size of the stones used is carefully prescribed as to be larger than pebbles so they will inflict mortal injury, but not so large as to kill with the first strike. After all, for those who get their jollies from watching helpless souls being stoned, they don't want the fun to run out before they finish their popcorn, do they?
The twist comes from the way in which the victims are immobilized so they have to stick around and provide the fun for the attendant holier-than-thou types who watch the sentence being carried out. A man sentenced to such a death is buried up to his waist. A woman is buried up to the top of her breasts. The victims know that if they are able to dig themselves free in one hell of a hurry, they can go free. I wonder how many of those Iranian perverts giggle maniacally while they consider the difference in the way the men and women are positioned?
Certainly, these Cro-magnons are forgetting one detail of their own faith every time they sentence anyone to stoning. The Quran acknowledges Jesus as a prophet, and Islam says all the prophets were divinely chosen to spread the word of god. The story is told of Jesus defending a woman from stoning and admonishing the self-righteous men wanting to murder her, saying that the one among them who was free of all sin himself should cast the first stone. The story goes on to say that the whole crowd dropped their missiles, and left the woman alone. It would be no different today if that same stricture was placed on those passing sentence on Ashtiani. It's just too damn difficult to deal with the problematic dichotomy between one of their divinely inspired prophets commanding compassion and their own inhumane actions, so they just conveniently ignore it.
The likely outcome of this case is that the Iranian judiciary will still carry out the death sentence on this poor woman, but they will do so by hanging or shooting her instead. It has happened exactly that way before. In 2008, for instance, Abdollah Farivar was convicted of “illicit relationship outside marriage” and sentenced to death by stoning. A worldwide storm of protest resulted in Iranian officials backing off from the stoning. They hung him instead. The international protest at that time did not cause them to give a second thought to the dried ink that is their signature on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
I doubt that it will now.